Summer

            for my sister

Yearly the summer tells its sunny lie.

Remember childhood, when we didn’t know

The lie for what it was?   Each year we’d go

Down to the beach, where, under a blue sky

That promised sunshine through eternity,

We’d splash and shout, ignorant eyes aglow.

Each day for us seemed one big bright hello;

In fact we were already saying a long goodbye.

Now that we know better, what to say?

We’ve tossed handfuls of earth into the graves

Of those with whom we first leapt in the waves.

What is there, but to stare back at the day,

Mute in our knowledge that we’re all its slaves,

And stand on the beach, and watch the children play?